CHAPTER 3
Institute, WV
“Henry? Henry Bawkula, is that you?”
He tried to look away, get into his car and go, but it was too late. She had caught him, and a discomforting feeling churned in his stomach. Still, he pulled his ball cap farther down on his head and hung the gasoline hose back on the pump.
He pressed the “NO” button that was asking him if he wanted a receipt, and when he turned he was face-to-face with Jennifer.
“Henry, seriously, I know you weren’t about to blow me off. It’s been almost ten years, and I can’t believe I’m seeing you again. I’m … I’m so happy,” she said, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a big hug. He tried to pull away, but she was unwilling to let him go. He wasn’t so sure he wanted her to let go, either, as there had been a time, not so long ago, when she had been the most normal thing in his life. And there she was, as pretty as she could be.
Jennifer, it’s great to see you,” he said, managing to break her embrace. “I-I didn’t know if you were still around. I mean, I‘m sorry to put it that way.” He shook his head. “It’s just that, well with the apocalypse and all I wasn’t sure if … if—”
She put her finger on his lips.
“Shhh Henry, I’m okay. You don’t have to worry, me and Mom and Dad and Roger are doing great. We were in Arizona when all of that happened. We were some of the lucky ones.”
Just cut it short; you have to go. “I’m glad to hear it. We uh … well, weren’t so fortunate. Look, I have to go.”
“Henry! I know you aren’t just going to leave me hanging like this. So many people are gone, and now I just happen to run into my last surviving boyfriend, and you want to run off on me? No, Sir. We have some catching up to do.”
Jennifer sounded convincing enough. She always had been forward, driven, and desirable. All he had ever wanted to do was please her back then, but that was high school, and the world had changed an awful lot since then.
“I’m sorry, Jennifer, but I can’t. Just give me your number and I’ll call you, I promise,” he said, forcing himself between her and his back bumper.
She pinned him against the car with her body and kissed him. Oh no. This can’t be happening. But it was happening; a flood of passion began to consume them both underneath the roof of the Go-Mart parking lot. He shoved her away.
“Are you crazy, Jennifer? I’m not alone here. I’ve got to go. You have to understand that. Just give me your—”
But it was too late. He was caught. She was caught, and the storm was coming. Henry took one last look at Jennifer, noting her sweet smile, silky black hair, bejeweled eyes over top of a rich and bewitching figure.
“What is it, Henry? You look like you just saw a zombie.”
He swallowed hard and said, “No, worse, sort of. You’re about to meet my girlfriend. My very jealous girlfriend.”
Jennifer turned around in time to catch Tori's last few bouncing steps. Henry swore he heard thunder overhead as his butt remained seated on the bumper of his car. Tori’s twelve pack of beer bottles rattled as she extended her hand toward Jennifer.
“Hi, I’m Tori … Henry’s girlfriend. And who might you be?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m Jennifer, Henry’s ex-girlfriend.”
What? Oh geez! “Uh, that was a long time ago, over a decade.”
Tori still held her hand out and slowly Jennifer extended hers as she said, “Well, it seems we both have great taste in brilliant men. It’s so nice to meet you—”
Jennifer’s eyes glanced down at their shaking hands. Henry watched as her body stiffened and she tried to pull her arm away. Tori held her fast. Jennifer looked over her shoulder at him, eyes pleading for mercy.
“Tori, let go,” he said, rising up from the bumper.
Jennifer’s knees began to buckle.
“LET GO, TORI!”
Jennifer gasped as she tore her arm away. Without looking back, she jumped into her car, tore out of the parking lot, and didn’t wave good-bye. Tori did, however, waving her gnarled half-dead arm like a banner from the 4th of July.
“Tori, put your arm down and get in the car. Now!”
They both slammed their doors as they got in. Henry had the car in drive and had punched it to the floor before she even got her seat-belt buckled.
“Way to go, Tori!”
“What? You can’t be mad at me. You’re the one sucking face with some woman in the parking lot!”
“I’m sorry—look, I’m sorry. She took me by surprise. I tried to get away, she just—”
Tori laughed, “She just what, over powered you? Give me a break, you cheater!”
“What? I’m not a cheater! You know better than that. Now get a hold of yourself.”
Tori didn’t say a word; she just stared out of her side window and brushed her hair back from her face with her odd hand.
All Henry could think about was getting back to the complex so he could bury himself back in his work, and Tori would do the same. There had been other highs and lows between them since they departed the Zombie Day Care under the most bizarre circumstances. Normal was no longer an option in his life. Embracing the abnormal to survive was his only option.
“You’re sick of being with me, aren’t you? Now that I’m deformed and all, you are wanting something better, perfect, like I used to be until you drug me into that day care.”
“Don’t go down this road, Tori. You said you wouldn’t bring it up anymore. I told you to stay outside, but you wouldn’t listen. Can’t you just be thankful that you’re alive?”
“I’m a freak!” she said, slamming her gnarled hand into the dashboard.
“Hey-Hey! Don’t do that. Quit acting like a child. You’re still beautiful; you know that.”
It was true. Tori was every bit as sexy as she ever was. Her auburn hair was lustrous, her buxom figure not as soft as before, but firm. Still, her sweet face was drained, almost haggard some days, but nobody paid her hand any mind as they were too busy looking at the rest of her. As strange as her hand was, it wasn’t nearly as bad as she made it out to be.
He glanced over at the appendage, but Tori tucked it under her leg and glared. From the elbow down you could see the flesh was pasty and gray. The fingers remained stiff and bent, the nails dead and black. Henry figured she could have coped with it better if it was her own arm to begin with, but it wasn’t. It was someone else’s, thicker and stronger like a man’s, but they were assured it was a woman’s. A woman lumberjack maybe. Henry always wondered about that. At least it worked, and it was better than nothing there at all.
Tori tore open the twelve pack of beer and pulled out a bottle.
“What are you doing now?”
“I’m having a beer,” she said, turning the top off of one and tilting it to her lips.
“Tori, quit that. Now you're just being silly. You don’t even drink.”
“Well, today I’m starting a new diet.”
Henry reached and grabbed the bottle saying, “Gimme that.”
“Oh Henry, don’t take my bottle. Please Henry don’t.” She said it like she was on a vaudeville stage, exasperated and silly.
Henry tugged at the bottle that was in the vise-like grip of her replaced hand. She was giggling at his futile efforts.
“What’s the matter, Henry, can’t the big boy take the bottle from the little girl?”
The car almost crashed into the rail as Henry jerked the wheel over and weaved back and forth between the single lanes before getting the car back under control. He let go of the bottle.
“Geez, Tori! You’re gonna cause a wreck. Now quit being a baby and put that beer back. It’s for the party. Stupid Rudy! And we’re on our way to work! Stupid complex! Stupid everything!” he shouted.
The thought of going back to the complex filled him with dread, as each passing hour approached, to the appointed time. He and Tori had been granted three weeks of leave after having been inside the dreadful complex for the prior six months. That?
??s what the World Humanitarian Society had done: given him another job, less than thirty miles from the last one. He had tried to quit, but he wasn’t given much choice. He wanted to run, but there wouldn’t be any escape. They had made all of that perfectly clear in all the briefings that followed the incident at the Guthrie Facility, home of the Zombie Day Care.
He felt Tori reach out and grab his hand—with her normal one—and squeeze. She scooted closer and said, “I’m sorry, Henry, it’s just that, you know it’s that time—”
“I know, that time of the month.”
“No, Jackhole!” she said, squeezing his hand, “It’s the anniversary of the day I lost my parents, Idiot!” She let go and scooted back away.
After he pulled off the highway, the car brakes squealed as he came to a stop. Idiot would be correct. Looking through the windshield, his body filled with dread. In the distance, a ten foot high limestone wall stretched over a hundred yards, with a chain-link gate in the center. He could see some of the brick-red building through the gate and some of the many tree tops that jutted over the top of the wall. He wanted to turn around.
“You ready?” he said, looking over at Tori’s pouting face.
She shrugged.
“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was your parents, uh, you know. I’m sorry.”
“Forget about it, Henry. Besides, it almost is that time of the month, too. But you’re still gonna make things right once we get in there.”
Allowing himself a faint smile, he looked over at her and said, “So you forgive me?”
“Of course. You’re all I’ve got, Henry … all I ever wanted. I just wish things were different. I hate being in there as much as you. But as long as I’m with you, then it doesn’t really matter where I am.”
He looked into her pretty eyes, held her face in his hands, and kissed her. When he finished, she opened her eyes and said, “You owe me a lot more than that, Henry. Now, let’s get this over with.”
He nodded his head, put the car in drive, and slowly headed down the road towards the front gate. Once again he would have to make the most of it, but he’d rather turn around. The sun was lowering in the horizon, and a flock of birds burst from the trees behind the wall. He swore he could hear something screaming. Tori grabbed his hand as his stomach began to knot. Six months. Six more months of living among the dead. The complex was a place filled with the unexpected and unnatural. Forget everything you just left. That was normal. Check your humanity at the gate. Forget your sanity. Embrace the insanity. Think abnormal. Welcome back to the Zombie Rehab.